I tilted my head back, blinking into his dark canopy, hating this conversation with every fiber of my being. “Tonight and a day.”
Chapter
Fifteen
Ronen
Adraft from Lucifer’s never-ending storm snuck through the leaded windowpanes, flickering candlelight across my desk and brushing my bare chest. The chill helped the pounding in my head but didn’t cure it. Maybe I needed to subject myself to another frigid shower to ease my hangover. Or sleep. But I couldn’t. I had too many problems to fix.
After writing the missive Lucifer failed to send out, I picked up Alexei’s reports. The first pulled a heavy sigh from my mouth. My inebriated speech scared the majority of the Bowels and Trenchers, and enough blood-banded in the higher squadrons that they refused to leave the barracks or arena.
That’d have to be dealt with.
I read the second report twice.
It seemed the nanny had told Xavier and Ian that Cecilee stopped in for a couple minutes, then left.
If it had been that quick, was Ridigar lying about waiting? Or was the nanny protecting Cecilee?
To desert Hell’s military was to either forfeit one’s life or be recycled.If she deserted, I had to find and punish her. And if she didn’t… it was possible the infected Damned had a hand in her disappearance.
I needed to question Ridigar again.
And the last report I slammed onto the pile with all the rest. They all stated the same damned things.
Verdant Forest—no sightings.
Hoar Hollow—streets clear, no reports of missing persons.
Eternal Forest—tracks reported, then gone within yards.
All in all, unable to locate the infected Damned.
“What are we missing?” I glared at the slashed circles marking the map on my desk. They were everywhere, outweighing the few Xs noting confirmed attacks or my own sightings. Alexei and I had gazed at this map until we were both so frustrated we had to punch it out in the arena. None of it made sense.
The infected Damned had soul-bodies; they weren’t apparitions that could slip through barriers and disappear…
My desk chair squeaked as I leaned forward, dragging a finger between the scattered Xs.
Eternal Forest. Veil Forest. Hoar Hollow. Shard Field.
No line. No pattern.
My hand stilled.
We continued to think the infected Damned were invading and holed up in a secret hideaway. But only half of that was fact. The rest was a theory—the only logical one. Except the idea that the Damned could invade the Redemption Circle wasn’t logical. It was impossible. Unfathomable. So what if our theory needed to be just as impossible?
What if the infected Damned were entering and leaving the Redemption Circle at will without Lucifer knowing?
That’d explain why every search came back empty. But Lucifer had said the darkness was lessening and growing.
Unless—
No.
If the infection were spreading, we’d see it. Liquefied flesh piles. Other infected souls. Panic in the streets.
Instead, we had footprints that led nowhere.
